Delta AirElite Maintenance Director Wins PPG Windshield for Challenger Jets

CINCINNATI – PPG Industries’ aerospace transparencies business has awarded a glass-faced acrylic replacement windshield for Bombardier Challenger 600, 601, 604, and 605 jets to Terry Bowling, director of maintenance, Delta AirElite Business Jets, as the winner of a drawing to promote the new transparency.

Dave Malobicky, business manager of the PPG Aerospace Indianapolis Application Support Center, and Brent Brown, PPG Aerospace account manager, presented the next-generation windshield to Bowling at the Delta AirElite Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport hangar.

PPG introduced its new-design replacement windshield for Bombardier Challenger 600, 601, 604 and 605 jets earlier this year, according to Malobicky.

A premier Challenger 604 operator, Delta AirElite had used an all-acrylic windshield but was considering switching to the glass-faced acrylic part, which prompted Bowling to enter the PPG drawing held at its exhibit booth during the National Business Aviation Association convention in October.

"From my former airline experience, I knew the glass-faced part would last longer," says Bowling. "And PPG has a great reputation. I thought, why not enter the drawing?"

According to Malobicky, PPG developed the new windshield for Challenger 600 Series jets with an outboard tempered glass ply to replace the acrylic face ply, but it kept the core and inner stretched-acrylic plies. "This windshield now combines the chemical and abrasion resistance of glass with the weight-saving benefits of plastic," he says.

Expected service life of the glass-faced acrylic windshield is more than double that of the all-acrylic part, Malobicky says, based on the expected service life of similarly designed windshields.

"The longer life reduces cost of ownership for the windshield and also translates to reduced maintenance with less downtime for service, especially beneficial for this part because it can take several days to change out," he says.

The heated windshield for Challenger 600, 601, 604 and 605 jets is made by PPG Aerospace at its Sierracin/Sylmar facility in Sylmar, CA, which also manufactures replacement side cockpit windows for the Challenger 600 Series fleet and replacement passenger-cabin windows for Challenger 600, 601 and 604 aircraft.

PPG is offering Challenger 600 Series business jet fleet operators a $10,000 rebate through the end of January on purchases of its new glass-faced acrylic replacement windshield, which lists for $52,000.